North Texans helping communities in North Carolina as flood response scales up

North Carolina state leaders say critical supplies are starting to reach communities that were devastated by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.

According to NBC News, the death toll from the storm has risen to 175 across the region, with hundreds still missing. At least 90 people are known to have died in North Carolina alone.

Food, water and other needs are being airlifted by the National Guard into counties across western North Carolina. President Joe Biden is expected to get an aerial tour of the damage on Wednesday.

The president has directed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 soldiers to deliver food, water, and other essentials to those impacted communities.

North Texans are continuing to help as well, with plans to be there for the long haul.         

Samaritan's Purse, which has a regional command operation based in Coppell, sent a team from DFW to help with the volunteer effort on the ground in North Carolina. Shannon Daley of Coppell, who is the field training manager for U.S. Disaster Relief for Samaritan’s Purse, spoke to NBC 5 from Boone, NC, via video call amid spotty reception and other communication issues in the area.

"Here in Boone, there's a lot of people that are still cut off in this area and the surrounding counties who have been stuck in their homes for days. Road closures are all over because the infrastructure was hit so bad that roads are just wiped out, bridges are gone,” she said. "For so many people, you're this far inland that you don't expect such catastrophic damage from a hurricane. So they just weren't prepared. They didn't know how to prepare."

The international Christian relief organization has begun emergency airlift operations in western North Carolina to help people who have been cut off from access to basic necessities.

On Tuesday, the group deployed an Emergency Field Hospital to assist Cannon Memorial Hospital in Avery County, North Carolina – a community that has been particularly hard-hit. The 20-bed unit will help alleviate the strained local healthcare system by providing triage support, emergency medical care, oxygen, and an in-patient ward if the main hospital reaches capacity.

Samaritan’s Purse has also provided two multi-bed field hospital oxygen units to local hospitals to supply oxygen for patients who don’t have power in their homes.

Also on Tuesday, the organization used a helicopter to sling load food and water to twelve isolated families in Newland, North Carolina as well as delivered a generator and a Starlink device to a care facility in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The facility had been without power for nearly four days, and supplies were beginning to run out.

"I was talking to one of our team leads the other day, and they were talking about the fact that they had cleared a driveway for a family that had been stuck in their home for three days. Just the idea of being able to get in their car, drive down their driveway, and go to the grocery store to get food – they were just living on whatever they had had at their house,” described Daley. “And so that little bit of hope, that little spark, the things that we take for granted every day, that now is such a precious thing to them."

Another local nonprofit, Texans On Mission based in Dallas – is also in Tennessee and North Carolina with shower/laundry, flood recovery, mass feeding, electrical and generator support, and an incident command center. Four of their chainsaw teams also deployed to North Carolina this week to assist with cleanup.

While aid is being rushed in, Samaritan’s Purse is putting out a plea for volunteers willing to go to North Carolina and help in the massive cleanup that is expected to take weeks to months or longer.

“I would say that that's the biggest part of the need, is just people to come out and do the labor that people can't do themselves. We're always looking for volunteers to be the boots on the ground,” said Daley. “As this leaves the news cycle, volunteers start to slow down and so it takes longer. But Samaritan's Purse is committed to being here for as long as it takes to be able to complete the work that's within the scope of what we can do in this area.”

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